Improving the Utility and Adoption of Human Augmentation Devices

8:30 am - 12:00 pm on April 3, 2019

Marcus Nanotechnology Building, Room 1117

Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

2019 International Symposium on Medical Robotics (ISMR)

Organizer:

Frank L. Hammond III, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

Format:

This is a half-day morning workshop with five 25-minute talks, each with five minutes for Q&A. The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion made of relevant experts in the field.

Workshop Focus:

The focus of this workshop is on improving the functionality, adoptability, and societal impact of human augmentation devices through the exploration of several technical and scientific topics thought to significantly impact the design and efficacy such devices, including:

Non‑invasive biosignal acquisition for various physiological feedback to wearables
Selection and acquisition of physiological signals for dexterous device control
Indices and methods of measuring cognitive loading, discomfort, and device embodiment
Impact of emotional arousal on device acceptance and utility
Cognition and psychosocial implications for wearable computing
Lowering the encumbrance of interfaces for wearable devices
Improving neuromotor learning for wearable and teleoperated devices
Assessing somatosensory plasticity and improving sensory feedback approaches
End‑user experiences, challenges, and insights into chronic assistive device use
Roadblocks to the success and proliferation of clinical human augmentation systems

The breadth of these topics speaks to the large technical and scientific scope of the challenges in human augmentation, and highlight the need for more concerted efforts in addressing these highly interdisciplinary areas. The goal of this workshop is to have leading experts in human augmentation discuss the most confounding and salient questions they face in this domain.

Schedule:

8:30 am - Frank L. Hammond III - Georgia Institute of Technology, "Non-Anthropomorphism in Dexterous Prosthesis Design"
9:00 am - Lewis Wheaton - Georgia Institute of Technology, "Feedback to Improve Prosthesis Use... but how?"
9:30 am - Nicholas Fey - The University of Texas at Dallas, "Shifting the focus on robotic leg prostheses to the neuromechanical response of device users during steady and non-steady-state locomotion"
10:00 am - Coffee and Networking
10:30 am - Minoru Shinohara - Georgia Institute of Technology, "Torso Muscle Activity for Human Augmentation"
11:00 am - Gil Weinberg - Georgia Institute of Technology, "Robotic Human Augmentation for Music Performance"
11:30 am - Panel Discussion

Speaker Bios:

Frank L. Hammond III is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and the director of the Adaptive Robotic Manipulation (ARM) Lab. His current research focuses on non-anthropomorphic device design, and the neurointegration of dexterous robotic prostheses and teleoperated machines with the human body through neuromotor and somatosensory adaptation. He earned a B.S. Electrical Engineering from Drexel University, M.S. degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, where his research focused on kinematically redundant robotic manipulator design. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences where he studied adaptive robotic grasping, teleoperative microsurgery, and soft sensing and actuation, and a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT where he studied soft pneumatic devices for grasp assistance.
Nicholas Fey is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. After attending college at The University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 2006, 2008 and 2011, with bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in Mechanical Engineering, respectively; he pursued research in the Center for Bionic Medicine at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (currently named the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab) and Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. His research focuses on the mechanics of human movement and informed design and control of prosthetic and orthotic technologies for human assistance, with an emphasis on demanding and non-steady-state forms of human locomotion. He has studied transtibial amputees and above-knee amputees and the application both conventional and robotic knee-ankle-foot prostheses for enhanced mobility. He holds appointments in engineering at UTD and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UT Southwestern, and directs the Systems for Augmenting Human Mechanics Lab, co-located at UTD and UT Southwestern.
Minoru “Shino” Shinohara is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences and the director of the Human Neuromuscular Physiology Lab at the Georgina Institute of Technology. His research area is neuromuscular physiology and biomechanics for motor control and adaptation in humans. He is also interested in applying the scientific knowledge of sensorimotor control to human augmentation. He received B.S. and M.S. in Physical Education and Ph.D. in Multidisciplinary Sciences (Exercise Physiology and Biomechanics) from the University of Tokyo, Japan. He had positions of assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, research associate at the Pennsylvania University, and senior research associate at the University of Colorado before coming to Georgia Tech. He is a Fellow member of the American College of Sports Medicine and an associate editor of Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. He is a member of Superhuman Sports Academy in Japan and authored “Sportsman Augmentation through Adaptation Enhancement” in Augmented Human (Rekimoto J. ed, 2018, in Japanese).
Lewis Wheaton is the Director of the Cognitive Motor Control Laboratory at Georgia Tech, engaged in over $1 million in state and federal research funding focused on understanding aspects of human motor control rehabilitation in aging, stroke and amputation. His lab has employed numerous high school, undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral fellows. He is the course director for 4 courses in the School of Biological Sciences (Human Neuroimaging, Movement Disorders, Human Neuroanatomy, and the History of Neuroscience). He has Chaired/Co-Chaired 3 international conferences focused on motor control research and clinical outcomes, obtaining funding by federal and private sources. His research has yielded several manuscript publications in the field of motor control neuroscience, several focused expert reviews, and numerous conference presentations both in the US and abroad. Dr. Wheaton is also an adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation at Emory School of Medicine and a Member of the Children’s Center for Neurosciences Research at the Emory Children’s Pediatric Research Center. Dr. Wheaton earned a BS (Biology) degree at Radford University (VA). He is an active parent volunteer at his children's schools and in the local community.
Gil Weinberg is a Professor and The Founding Director of Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology, where he leads the Robotic Musicianship group. His research focuses on developing artificial creativity and musical expression for robots and augmented humans. Among his projects are a marimba playing robotic musician called Shimon that uses machine learning for composition, improvisation, and interaction, and prosthetic robotic arms for amputees that restores and enhances human musical abilities. Weinberg has presented his work worldwide in venues such as the United Nations, The Kennedy Center, The World Economic Forum, Ars Electronica, Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum, SIGGRAPH, and TED among others. Weinberg received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT and his B.A. from the interdisciplinary program for fostering excellence in Tel Aviv University.

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